Big Mistake
Sam Aurelius Milam III
The
U.S. Constitution was supposed to be a limitation on the powers of government.
Instead, it has become a limitation on the rights of the people.
That has happened primarily because people have accepted two ideas.
• The only rights they have are those which
can be directly construed from the U.S. Constitution. No other rights
are deemed to exist.
• Since the only valid defense of rights is
that they are "Constitutional", the only place where they can be defended
is in court.
The
designation of the U.S. Constitution as the only acceptable source of rights
has resulted in the utter destruction of other rights, besides "Constitutional
rights", which might have existed. Otherwise, people could have had
any rights they wanted, just by insisting upon them. Limiting the
defense of rights only to the courts has resulted in the few "Constitutional
rights" being converted into mere privileges, granted by the courts.
Rights should have been defended by people's behavior, in their daily lives.
How
could otherwise intelligent people make such a mistake? One reason
is that they don't have a good definition of rights. Ask someone
for such a definition and he will give you a list of things that he believes
to be rights. However, a list isn't a definition. People don't
even understand that distinction. Furthermore, everyone has a different
list. The result is that nobody knows what behavior ought to be regarded
as a right, and we waste our liberty squabbling.
The
first correction that must be made is to recognize the distinction between
a right and a privilege. If someone granted it, then it isn't a right.
If someone gave permission to exercise it, then it isn't a right.
If some institution has jurisdiction over it, then it isn't a right.
A right is (in part) something that you can do or that you can refuse to
do, as you chose, without asking permission, paying a fee, getting a license,
submitting to a test, and so forth. A right is YOURS. You can
do the thing or refuse to do it, as you chose. Rights don't come
from the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, or a court, or an agency.
If they exist, it is because you exercise them. That is the first
lesson of rights. You don't ask for them. They aren't granted.
You exercise them. Otherwise, they don't exist.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
Abolish the "Family" Courts
Sam Aurelius Milam III
The
"best interest of the child" isn't the most important standard upon which
to base a body of legal doctrine. Children (future adults) are ill
served if their "best interest" is used as an excuse to reduce adults to
a condition of servitude. If the "best interest of the child" results
in the creation of a police state (which it has), then it would be better
if children weren't protected at all. Children are important, but
liberty (mine, yours, and theirs) is more important.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
Reparations?
Sam Aurelius Milam III
Occasionally,
I still hear people claim that reparations are due to the present black
descendants of previous black slaves. Those claims fail on several
points. First, the reparations will not be paid by previous white
slave owners, but by presently living white folks, like me. However,
I didn't kidnap anybody from Africa and force them to come here to be slaves.
Therefore, I don't owe any reparations. Furthermore, the reparations
will not be paid to the slaves, but to the presently existing descendants
of those slaves. Those descendants weren't kidnapped and brought
here forcibly, so reparations are not due to them. Their claims fail
on another point. Those black descendants of previous slaves claim
that they've been harmed by what was done to their ancestors. How's
that? Where would they be if their ancestors
hadn't been kidnapped?
Maybe they'd be starving in Ethiopia, slogging through the mud in Mozambique,
or dying of AIDS in Botswana. They sure wouldn't be in America, if
they existed at all. Events that were atrocities for their ancestors
have been a blessing for them. I'm sorry that slavery happened.
We can all grieve for it and hope that it doesn't happen again. Beyond
that, I think they should count their blessings and get on with their lives.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not
either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without
freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some
and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
— Abraham Lincoln
in a Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
|
May 2000
Page 2 |
Frontiersman,
479 E. 700 N., Firth, Idaho 83236
Also see The Pharos Connection at http://www.ida.net/users/pharos/ |
frontiersman@ida.net |
|